In the crowded field of historical writing, the Maynooth Studies in Local History books stand out as an exemplar of quality, covering multidisciplinary subjects. Published by Four Courts Press, the series has undergone a makeover with attractive colour covers and is now under the editorship of Michael Potterton. Since 1995 more than 200 books have been published. Six new volumes, all priced at €12.95, cover a geographical canvas of the four provinces.
As a fording point on the river Shannon, Carrick-on-Shannon, the former O’Rourke stronghold of Cora Droma Rúisc, occupied a strategic position. In From Carrigdrumruske to Carrick-on-Shannon: The St George estate, 1613-1864 Mairead Lynch charts the lives and times of the St George family of Cambridgeshire who came into possession of the territory during the plantation in the early 1600s.
The book recounts the development of the St George dynasty through six generations over a 250-year period. It examines their military and political prowess, their legacy and how, in the author’s words, their “chameleon-like ability to curry favour with the dominant power” sat alongside their sometimes questionable use of the authority it generated. In 1923 the estate passed to the Irish Land Commission and Carrick survives as a product of its unique position across the passage of time.
In the neighbouring county of Roscommon a pacifist organisation, the Society of Friends, comes under the spotlight in The Quaker community in Ballymurray, Co Roscommon, 1718-1848 by Jacqueline née Creaven d’Towey. Three miles south of Roscommon town, their meeting house, which was built in 1721, was that of the only long-term pre-famine Quaker group west of the Shannon.
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For 130 years the community were tenants of Lord Crofton of Mote Park, one of the leading figures in Co Roscommon, who owned an estate of 4,450 hectares (11,000 acres). The Quakers dealt with many challenges in the early years but were interrelated and networked with each other – although, as the author points out, their internal dynamics did not always help their cause. By 1848 the community had dwindled to just a few members.
In Dún na nGall, ‘Fort of the Foreigners’? The Vikings and their legacy in Donegal Megan McAuley argues a compelling case for a Viking presence in northwest Ireland. Archaeological evidence over the years has produced finds including a hoard of eight silver arm-rings unearthed at Horn Head, a silver ingot near Dunfanaghy and Anglo-Saxon coins near Burt. Arm-rings, an earring of Viking origin, and ringed pins were recovered in other areas.
Folktales, toponymical sources, placenames and personal names all provide clues for the presence of Vikings, particularly in Inishowen and around Sheephaven Bay. There are also possible Old Norse influences, while documentary evidence describes encounters between the Irish and Vikings, especially around Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle.
The evolution over three centuries of a resilient and prosperous farming community in northwest Kildare is explored in Farming and society since 1700 in the barony of Carbury, Co Kildare by Lesley Whiteside. The Colley estate, which stretched from the Upper Boyne on the west to the Bog of Allen on the east and south, was central to the modern history of the barony.
Among the subjects dealt with are the treatment of farm labourers, the impact of the Great Famine, land reform and 20th-century organisation. While farmland along the main roads to Dublin has been sold for housing, the Carbury landscape retains its agricultural lifestyle and reflects its history. Special features of the book are the exquisite sketches of the built heritage by Rachel Clarke.
During the winter of 1700 and the early months of 1701, the trial of Pat Hurly, a former Jacobite functionary from a remote part of Clare, became a cause celebre in Ireland. The events of that period are recounted in The perjury trial of Patrick Hurly of Moughna, Co Clare: Elite Catholic responses to the emerging Protestant ascendancy by Brendan Twomey.
Hurly was presented to the court as a rogue and cheat. He was convicted of having sworn a false affidavit in respect of a “sham robbery” of gold and jewellery worth £1,300 at his father’s farmhouse. The case elevated a local matter of an alleged armed robbery and fraud into a national political affair. This study, based on the printed trial manuscript and state papers, sets out the complex evidence presented, the legal manoeuvres undertaken by both sides, and the rivalry underpinning the case. Hurly was found guilty of perjury at the court of king’s bench in Dublin and fined £100.
The sixth book, Mary Mercer’s Dublin legacy, 1724-2024 by Peter A Daly, looks at the history behind an initial shelter built to prepare an orphanage for girls which led to the establishment years later of a voluntary hospital. The will made by Mary Mercer ensured care for the girls and support for the needy in local parishes. Although the hospital received nothing, it survived through fundraising as well as support from wealthy patrons and the state. In 1991 the building was converted into a clinical centre and medical library for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Three hundred years since its founding, Mercer’s name lives on. It is commemorated by a house for boarders at the King’s Hospital School, while Mercer’s Medical Centre is owned by Mercer’s Hospital Foundation, a charity established in 1987 occupying the redesigned basement.
Paul Clements’s latest book, A Year in the Woods: Montalto through the Seasons, is published by Merrion Press.
